Putting love back into medicine

What would happen if everyone understood that the true foundation of medicine is love, not as a theory or a philosophy, but because we inhabit it?

As a physician, I find it fascinating that love is regarded as a distraction and not an essential part of the scientific method or approach to medicine. Is that true or is it just an omission that has, somewhere along the line, become accepted as truth?

I think that leaving love out of the equation is a misuse of our brilliant intellect. We have abstracted ourselves out of a connection with the source of life with far from desirable outcomes.

I intuit that if love became part of scientific research and medical practice, it can go a very long way to preventing disease, finding cures and reducing the immense pressure on a ludicrously expensive medical system which is only focussed on managing disease, not restoring health.

The situation is slightly better in non-pharmaceutical medicines, psychology and other healing modalities, but we can do much better. We can be more empowering to the client. We can start seeing and harnessing our clients’ innate health, instead of looking for what’s wrong to be fixed.

It’s time to put love back into medicine in all its forms. What if that was only ONE thought away?

Here, I am not referring to the rose tinted, romantic, short-lived manufactured form of love but an enduring quality of universal energy flowing through each of us moment by moment and is the essence of who we are. While scientific knowledge is important, it is not the most vital ingredient for healing, love is.

Thankfully we do not have to wait for the medical system to change or a scientific breakthrough before we can benefit. We can start now, right where we are since nobody has a monopoly on love.

An invitation to heal

For me, this is an invitation to step up and allow love to be a central theme in my life and work. I want to see how far that takes me and to share what I uncover with fellow humans along the way.

It is also an open invitation to each of us to step into an evolution of the heart. It invites us to explore the implications and genuine applications to transforming our approach to self-care and the practice of medicine, psychology and healing modalities in all their forms.

It is about shifting away from the obsession with trying to conquer disease and viewing symptoms as problems to be fixed. It is about seeing the importance of love in empowering the healing process and offering the possibility of transformation. It is about regarding symptoms as ‘loving tweets’ from our body that we are out of alignment with the essence of who we are.

The word medicine derives from the Latin root, ars medicine, which means the art of healing.

To me, the essence of healing is to wake up to our imperishable potential to be whole and well. In short, to know that the essence of who we are is love and to inhabit that quality of feeling and energy vibration.

Through the ages, the wise have pointed us to an insightful knowing that the essence of every being and all things is love. One example of a medicine that is founded upon that universal energy that connects us to all things and all beings is acupuncture.

A medicine rooted in the spirit

Acupuncture is one of the most remarkable and enduring expressions of Daoist philosophy and has been continuously practiced for at least 3000 years.

In Daoist medicine, the Sovereign is a metaphor for the Heart which in turn represents the presence and physical location of a numinous and formless power called Shen (spirit) that animates each person. Another word for that power is love.

In a highly revered Classical text of acupuncture, the Ling shu, written during the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE), there is a famous passage that says,

“All Diseases are Rooted in the Spirit”, Chapter 8, Ben Shen 本 神 of the Ling Shu.

This passage and its commentaries have served not only as the foundation of acupuncture but of Chinese medicine. It conveys a vision beyond the structure and material - anatomy and physiology - pointing us to the primacy, the living energy, of our Spirit (Shen). Unfortunately, modern acupuncture and Chinese medical training and practice privileges the material aspects and seems to have lost sight of the heart of medicine.

According to a translation by sinologist and scholar, Prof. Heiner Freuhauf, the notion of shen can be summarized as “that which is subtle and invisible, yet commands everything.”

Shen carries the energetic blueprint for the structure of our physical body. It conducts all life processes throughout our body by commanding the flow of Qi through the acupuncture channel system. In my view, shen is also a word that conveys the power of consciousness - giving us the capacity of awareness, cognition and intelligence. The Classical texts point us to an understanding that shen is also the source of the creative power of thought.

practicing medicine with love

Another important theme that runs through the Classical texts of Chinese medicine is the quality of the physician. They say that the defining characteristic of a preeminent physician is the ability to diagnose and treat diseases at the level of shen. A remarkable passage in the Classical text, Neijing, translated by Heiner Freuhauf, says that:

“The superior physician makes it his prerogative to treat disease when it has not yet structurally manifested, and prevents being in the position of having to treat disorders that have already progressed to the realm of the physical.” Whereas, “the low level physician finds himself salvaging what has already manifested in physical form, and treating what is already ruined.”

These passages are deep and rich and go far beyond the literal meaning. Contemplating the Classical texts can be an instructive and transformative experience. They invite us to reflect deeply, over a long period time, on the inner meaning of what they are pointing to. We are invited to attend and come to understand the experience that is evoked in us.

The fundamental understanding of acupuncture can inform and be applied to all forms of medicine.

putting the heart back into medicine

Being grounded in the Heart, the residence of the spirit, is curative, preventative and healing in my experience. It is a place where we are fundamentally whole and well and where everything looks completely different. That is the place where the most effective solution can be seen, where we can prevent ill health, and where true healing happens.

When the practitioner is heart-centred it not only resonates with the same place in the client but also gives them permission to drop into the space within themselves.

Wherever there is love there is also wisdom which guides the practitioner to the most viable solution in realtime for whatever ails their client. From that space, both client and practitioner can clearly see a way to prevent sickness. From that space the client can see a deeper and simpler way to heal.

This approach is a shift in perspective and emphasis away from seeking and fixing problems to seeing how everything is love in action and being responsive to it. That offers a lot of hope and scope for the practitioner and their clients.

In future articles I shall share what I have seen to be helpful on this exploration to put the Heart back into medicine.